The Executive Yuan designates “third-party payment service industry” under the scope of money-laundering prevention (Taiwan)

Sean Liu, Jack Hsieh

While Taiwan’s Money-Laundering Control Act mainly regulates financial institutions, it also applies to industries and practitioners whose business characteristics or trade patterns are prone to exploitations for money-laundering related crimes.  The Executive Yuan has announced on August 18, 2021, to include “third-party payment service industry” under the scope of the Money-Laundering Control Act, effective immediately.  Thus, third-party payment services such as Line Pay or EC Pay are required to comply with the law to establish internal control and audit system, verify their clients’ identities, record and store any necessary transactions, and set up other measures for money-laundering control.  However, unlike financial institutions, these designated third-party payment services and other non-financial institutions/practitioners within the scope of the money-laundering related laws are not required to declare the currency transactions equal to or above the applicable designated threshold to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

For more information, please refer to the Executive Yuan’s August 18, 2021 announcement.

Link: https://gazette.nat.gov.tw/egFront/detail.do?metaid=126317&log=detailLog